Is it true there is a small group of main contributors and the rest of users remain (mostly) passive?

[noname223]

Today I am too exhausted for a long thread so I will keep it short.

I am pretty sure one could call me a main contributor of this forum. Do you have the feeling some users skew discussions in certain directions simply by writing very many posts? If this is the case is this a good or bad thing? I am not sure whether this is true. I am ambivalent there are a lot of members with several hundred posts but people with more than 1500 posts are rather rare.
I read the atmosphere changes when main contributors leave and new unique voices emerge. I guess noone is irreplacable.

I think there is a massive amount of lurkers who I will never talk with. It is a weird feeling that there could be people reading my threads regularly but who I will never interact with. And if we met on the streets we would not notice us. However this applies to all members I interact with.

I have mixed feeling about lurkers. They outnumber the members at least twice I think. I could imagine this is a very heterogenous group and there are probably also a lot of bots. Probably also people with bad intentions or people who are curious about suicidal people who wanna gawk are among them. It is a grey mass of people and it would be interesting to know which reasons let them remain passive when they are also suicidal. For example people in high positions might be scared about being potentially identified or possibly celebs.

 

[rebdomine]

I think the ratio between contributers and lurkers are true for every social media and forum online. It's just more noticeable here because of the smaller community and the fact that you can see how many is browsing the site at all times. This forum is definitely dependent on frequent posters but personally I never pay attention to people's names or profiles so I can't tell if they're steering the conversation in any direction.


I found this site about a year ago and been occasionally lurking since but I didn't make an account until recently. I can't speak for all the other lurkers but for me it was mostly just helpful reading about everyone else's experience with suicidal thoughts. I never needed an account because just reading was good enough, but now I have my own plan for ctb and I thought "why not make an account?" I think most lurkers are just like me and are just reading because they need to know they're not alone in their thoughts. Even if one side is just observing it's still peer support for them.

 

[Unending]

I would definitely say that there are certain users who are much more frequent posters. I too have felt like the atmosphere of the website
has changed when there are influxes of new users or when the average people stop posting as much. I take some level of comfort from seeing familiar faces (names, profile pictures, etc) on the website daily. I don''t get much social interaction in real life due to severe panic so seeing others vent or ask random questions in the off-topic section kind of reminds me of a less panic attack inducing kind of support group.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I get the impression certain members want the forum to be a certain way, although I don't think they are necessarily trying to steer it. I think it's more that the same thoughts are flooding their minds and this is the only place they have to express them.

People use the forum differently too. Some people don't really seem to want to interact, although they obviously want their posts to be read by others- otherwise they'd just journal privately I imagine. Others use it almost like social media and want to find friends.

I don't tend to look that much at who's viewing threads. I guess it just depends on the person. Some people feel content just reading posts I guess. I was so happy when I found this place. I'd made an account within reading only one or two threads because I really wanted to respond.

It is weird to think there are lurkers here. Especially if they are pro-life. I could understand from an initial description why people would be shocked about this place but if they are actually amoung us and read lots of posts, do they still believe it's some kind of death cult? I find that weird.

 

[KiraX]

I'm new to this site, and didn't really know about it till a week ago. Lurked for a few days then decided to make account because I'm lonely af and have no one to talk to. I literally don't get to leave the house so I don't even get any human interaction daily.

I like to post a lot because I want people to hear my dumb silly opinions or statements and see who I truly am. The members of this forum are the rare select few people who get to see me for who I am truly.

I want to have people know me in some form before I ctb. To know my pain, my suffering.

I'm not sure how people steer forums and I don't know what that looks like/ect. But I do understand people using this as a social media of sorts.

 

[Sprite_Geist]

I think that (some) of those who are lurking might wish to join Sanctioned Suicide, but could simply be too shy to do so. Speaking from my own experience: when I first discovered this forum I lurked for at least a few weeks, and did not want to sign-up, because I was too concerned with what the users at that time might think about me. Eventually I decided to create an account, and here I am feeling (mostly) comfortable. I still think of myself as a semi-lurker though, because I do not post as much as I used to.

...The above likely does not apply to everyone though. For certain people: they might not wish to interact at all, and they just want to observe from a distance; content with knowing that there are others who feel/think similarly about suicide as they do, and that alone is enough for them - which is absolutely fine.

I am pretty sure one could call me a main contributor of this forum. Do you have the feeling some users skew discussions in certain directions simply by writing very many posts? If this is the case is this a good or bad thing? I am not sure whether this is true. I am ambivalent there are a lot of members with several hundred posts but people with more than 1500 posts are rather rare.
I read the atmosphere changes when main contributors leave and new unique voices emerge. I guess noone is irreplacable.

The more time a person spends here the more likely they are to accumulate a higher post count. Though given the nature of this forum most do not live long enough to become long-term members. The only difference with the users that have large post counts, is that they have just survived long enough to be considered a "main" member. They could have easily been among the many who come here, and leave shortly after for whatever reason; this also applies vice versa. So you are correct in saying that nobody is irreplaceable.

In short: personal circumstances often dictate how long a person stays, and any influence or impact that a user has is - I think - not intentional.

 

[Epsilon Lyrae]

I totally agree with rebdomine

I think most lurkers are just like me and are just reading because they need to know they're not alone in their thoughts. Even if one side is just observing it's still peer support for them.

I don't usually post that often, so perhaps you might consider me a "lurker". I am an introvert mostly. i have social anxiety. I want to participate in more conversations but usually the thoughts like "nobody asked, nobody wants to hear that" take over, so i just read silently. And, well, generally im happy to be around even without any direct interactions. Not to gawk, but rather just to *be around* I guess. Sometimes reading conversations makes me feel better. And if I feel that I can write something and make someone's day a bit better I'll be pleased to do. Honestly speaking, reading this thread was a bit frustrating because I would never wish anything bad for anyone here. And I guess I'm not alone like this. Not participating in discussions doesn't necessarily correlate with some malicious intent…

 

[sammiechzxv]

Yeah, I guess. I usually see the same people on every thread.

 

[noname223]

I totally agree with rebdomine


I don't usually post that often, so perhaps you might consider me a "lurker". I am an introvert mostly. i have social anxiety. I want to participate in more conversations but usually the thoughts like "nobody asked, nobody wants to hear that" take over, so i just read silently. And, well, generally im happy to be around even without any direct interactions. Not to gawk, but rather just to *be around* I guess. Sometimes reading conversations makes me feel better. And if I feel that I can write something and make someone's day a bit better I'll be pleased to do. Honestly speaking, reading this thread was a bit frustrating because I would never wish anything bad for anyone here. And I guess I'm not alone like this. Not participating in discussions doesn't necessarily correlate with some malicious intent…

I would not consider you a lurker since you have an account. I rather meant guests primarily. But yeah I probably generalized too much in this thread due to my lack of time and energy. Sorry for frustrating you.

 

[Epsilon Lyrae]

Sorry for frustrating you.

Don't be :)

The whole prose I've put down was just some exaggerated night emotions that I slept off already, but anyway thank you for reply.

Take care, friend

 

[Enlighten]

Today I am too exhausted for a long thread so I will keep it short.

I am pretty sure one could call me a main contributor of this forum. Do you have the feeling some users skew discussions in certain directions simply by writing very many posts? If this is the case is this a good or bad thing? I am not sure whether this is true. I am ambivalent there are a lot of members with several hundred posts but people with more than 1500 posts are rather rare.
I read the atmosphere changes when main contributors leave and new unique voices emerge. I guess noone is irreplacable.

I think there is a massive amount of lurkers who I will never talk with. It is a weird feeling that there could be people reading my threads regularly but who I will never interact with. And if we met on the streets we would not notice us. However this applies to all members I interact with.

I have mixed feeling about lurkers. They outnumber the members at least twice I think. I could imagine this is a very heterogenous group and there are probably also a lot of bots. Probably also people with bad intentions or people who are curious about suicidal people who wanna gawk are among them. It is a grey mass of people and it would be interesting to know which reasons let them remain passive when they are also suicidal. For example people in high positions might be scared about being potentially identified or possibly celebs.

I think it makes sense that the amount of lurkers is far greater than the contributors. Although it can always change. I am really active now, but that might change in the future, as the future is unpredictable.

 

[todeswunsch]

Today I am too exhausted for a long thread so I will keep it short.

I am pretty sure one could call me a main contributor of this forum. Do you have the feeling some users skew discussions in certain directions simply by writing very many posts? If this is the case is this a good or bad thing? I am not sure whether this is true. I am ambivalent there are a lot of members with several hundred posts but people with more than 1500 posts are rather rare.
I read the atmosphere changes when main contributors leave and new unique voices emerge. I guess noone is irreplacable.

I think there is a massive amount of lurkers who I will never talk with. It is a weird feeling that there could be people reading my threads regularly but who I will never interact with. And if we met on the streets we would not notice us. However this applies to all members I interact with.

I have mixed feeling about lurkers. They outnumber the members at least twice I think. I could imagine this is a very heterogenous group and there are probably also a lot of bots. Probably also people with bad intentions or people who are curious about suicidal people who wanna gawk are among them. It is a grey mass of people and it would be interesting to know which reasons let them remain passive when they are also suicidal. For example people in high positions might be scared about being potentially identified or possibly celebs.

I think this is true for most online communities. What you described is basically the 1% rule , where "only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk", alternatively "90% of the participants of a community only consume content, 9% of the participants change or update content, and 1% of the participants add content."

 

[Scythe]

If you mean guests, then usually unless some dipshit made a post exposing us. It should be 1 to 1 ratio. If you mean members, then yea, there's going to be the regulars like what you have in a discord server, and then everyone else lurks.